Tray for wafers



April 7, 1959 A. M DOUGALL ET AL TRAY FOR WAFERS Filed Sept. 22, 1955 INVENTORSI /6 H1. EXAM DER MAc Doug/an. BY JONAS HRb'rmaocK a 3 WWW. 4/

ATTORNEYS United States Patent Office Patented Apr. 7, 1959 2,880,880 TRAY FOR WAFERS Alexander MacDougall, South Orange, and Jonas H. Rothrock, Newark, NJ.

Application September 22, 1955, Serial No. 535,835 3 Claims. (Cl. 211-49) This invention relates to a tray for supporting disc shaped wafers or candies, such as mints or the like, in which the separate wafers are of substantially the same diameter.

It is an object of the invention to provide a tray which will receive and maintain the wafers in vertical position,

but with the outboard or accessible portions widely spaced from each other and thereby permit them to be easily grasped for removal.

It is a further object to provide a tray in which the wafers are supported in substantially vertical position by contact with the dish at substantially opposite ends of a center line of the wafers and for a substantial distance below this point of contact and thus suspend the wafer between the two sides and thereby reduce the tendency of the wafers to roll or fall over.

It is a further object to provide a dish of the character described in which the above objects may be secured without the need of partitions or grooves in the wafer supporting surfaces, which would detract from the appearance of the dish.

It is a further object to provide a dish in which the wafers are supported in vertical radial planes about a supporting handle and are supported substantially independent of each other whereby the removal of one wafer will not cause the others to fall down.

The invention accordingly comprises the device hereinafter described and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective drawing of the tray; Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof, and Fig. 3 is a cross section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

The body of the tray comprises a circular trough in a semi-toroid form, that is, a surface of revolution of an upwardly turned semi-circle 11 rotated about an internal axis 12. The diameter of this semi-circle, which will be referred to as the width of the trough, is an important phase of this invention and this width must be substantially equal to the diameter of the wafers 13 which are to be retained therein, in order that the wafers will be supported by the inwardly curving side walls of the trough at points 14 and 15, said points being substantially the opposite ends of a horizontal diameter of the wafers. In addition and in order to insure the wafers being supported by a portion of the wafer from points 14 and 15 downward for a substantial distance and thereby provide sulficient bearing area and support for the wafer in substantially the same plane in which its center of gravity is located with little or no tendency being evidenced to tilt or roll over from the vertical position, the radius of the tray as shown in Fig. 3 is slightly enlarged as it drops off to the bottom of the tray in order to provide the space 19.

The circular trough comprising the body of the tray is adapted to rest on a table by providing a suitably formed inverted dished pan or ring fastened to the underside of said trough and thereby provide a supporting flange 16 while the top inner edge is closed by the insertion of a suitably formed circular piece 17 which contains in its center a vertically mounted axially disposed handle 18 of any suitable ornamental form.

The size of these wafer candies has become standardized at 1% inches in diameter and therefore for such wafers that will be the width of the trough. Within the ordinary range of tolerance in the size of wafers as they are manufactured they are held in vertical position purely by the shape of the trough. While the wafers do not always conform exactly to the shape of the trough, they are nevertheless within close enough limits as to be retained in vertical position by the friction created over a substantial distance of peripheral contact from points 14 and 15 downwards between the inwardly curving sides of the trough and the edge of the mints. The friction over the two radial portions is suflicient to maintain the mints in a vertical plane, wherein the gravitational force is exerted in that same plane and therefore does not cause the wafers to tilt or lean.

The tray herein disclosed is of a particular width for holding mint waters of a definite diameter and provide a ready means for individual service of each mint without fumbling or hunting for an edge by which to lift and remove said mint. It must be understood that modifications, variations and adoptions may be produced within the spirit, scope and principle of this invention by making the trough of said tray of varying widths and depths to accommodate any number of circular edible products and thereby make it possible to facilitate the serving thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. A water tray designed to hold circular edible wafers of some given diamter and maintain each wafer in sub stantially a vertical radial plane about an axis, said tray comprising a handle extending upward along a centrally located vertical axis, a trough attached to said handle and circularly spaced around said axis and of sufficient diameter to allow sufiicient space on the outboard portion of the wafers for easy removal thereof, said trough at its upper or open side having a substantially semicircular cross-section with a width equal to the diameter of said wafer and being of slightly larger diameter as it proceeds downward to the lower closed side of the trough so that when waters of said given diameter are inserted in said trough, said trough will have the necessary cross section to engage and support them on the two inwardly sloping circular sides for substantially one half the extent of the circumference of the lower half of the wafers, whereby each wafer will have its center of gravity retained in a vertical radial plane and will be supported vertically against tilting.

2. A dish for edible wafers of some given diameter comprising a trough in the form of a semitoroid, the diameter of the trough being equal to the wafer diameter over substantially the upper half and being of slightly increasing diameter over substantially the lower half, and an upwardly dished circular base attached to the underside of the semi-toroidal trough and forming a suitable mounting therefor.

3. A dish for edible wafers of some given diameter comprising a trough with two support surfaces in the form of arcs of a circle, the radius of the arcs forming the support area of the trough being equal to the radius of the wafer, and the area below the support surfaces being of a gradually increasing radius to form a clearance for the wafer, and an upwardly dished circular base attached to and forming a suitable support for said dish.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 164,208 Portington June 8, 1875 198,181 Barker Dec. 18, 1877 210,234 Beach Nov. 26, 1878 301,330 Beck July 1, 1884 420,345 Kern Jan. 28, 1890 1,756,963 Ware May 6, 1930 2,189,450 Robinson Feb. 6, 1940 2,660,529 Bloom Nov. 24, 1953 

